Citigroup profit rises on asset sale benefit, cost cuts

The fourth-biggest U.S. bank by assets said on Thursday that net income rose to $4.13 billion in the third quarter ended Sept. 30 from $3.84 billion a year earlier.

Earnings per share rose about 15 percent to $1.42 from $1.24 as the company shrank the number of shares outstanding by 7 percent - buying back stock under its biggest capital return plan approved by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

Results included a $355 million gain, worth 13 cents a share, from the previously disclosed sale of a fixed income market analytics and index business.

Analysts on average had expected earnings of $1.32, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. It was not immediately clear if the numbers were comparable.

JPMorgan Chase & Co, the biggest U.S. bank by assets, earlier on Thursday reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, but said its bond trading revenue slumped 27 percent. (Reporting by Sweta Singh in Bengaluru and David Henry in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr)